Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Who killed higher education?

According to Paul Greenberg, it's a suicide--led by administrators desperate to put rear ends in seats, no matter what the academic cost. If you want to find a suitable school for your child (or for that matter, perhaps yourself), you might do well to ask about the core curriculum, and (here I am on my soapbox again) whether the school offers remedial classes. If they don't feature western civilization in the core curriculum and do have remedial classes, chances are pretty good that whatever is being taught there isn't strictly speaking academic.

Update: here's a great piece by Douglas Wilson on about the same subject. If you find yourself in a church where no one has a grasp of the beauties of western civilization and classical learning, it's time to get out of the Dark Ages by learning some Latin yourself, or by going to a church where the Gospel is preached by someone who has at least had a touch of the liberal arts.

Bad education and remedial courses are highly correlated, but I'd be loathe to condemn remedial courses as such. Not everyone has access to decent secondary education, wherever the fault may lie; it doesn't seem "principled" to cut people off from a good higher education for life because their schools, or their parents, or someone else beyond their control, messed it up.

To clarify, I think remedial classes are fine at community colleges and two year schools--at the four year schools, having the 83% of remedial students who will never graduate simply drags down the academic experience for all.